Recently, I found myself being worked up by a rheumatologist. When asked to provide a list of home meds, I forgot to share an acne skin cream. I have used it for so long that I hardly consider it a medication but more so a part of my skin care regime. When I realized my omission halfway through the visit, imagine my embarrassment to discover that this medication can cause drug-induced lupus. Being in healthcare, I know the importance of a complete medication list, yet I was now the patient inadvertently omitting vital diagnostic information. Resolved to not have it happen again, I resigned myself to make a formal list of medications rather than rely on memory.

Roche Pharma Research and Early Development, a division of Roche Pharmaceuticals, has developed a new mobile app to measure Parkinson’s disease symptoms. The app was developed in partnership with Max Little, a British mathametician at the head of the Parkinson’s Voice Initiative, and it will actually be used in a drug development trial with Prothena Biosciences.“The app is being used in a Phase I trial run by Prothena, in collaboration with Roche in Parkinson’s disease,” Anirvan Ghosh, Head of Neuroscience Discovery for pRED, said in a statement. “In clinical trials in this area, disease disability and impairment are traditionally measured by physician assessments using the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS). However, these are limited to the specific times that patients go for an appointment with their physicians. The app will enable continuous measurement of PD fluctuation every day and throughout the day. Ultimately, we hope the app can be used in future clinical development to enable more objective measures on response to treatment to complement doctor assessments.”

Even as funding for digital health start-ups is accelerating, a new report from Accenture (NYSE:ACN) forecasts that one out of every two of these new companies is likely to fail within two years of launch – but that larger companies could mine these “zombie” start-ups for talent or innovative technologies.

“Rather than discard the investment that has been made in getting sputtering start-ups off the ground, it often makes sense for healthcare stakeholders to acquire them, salvage their best people and technologies and awaken them from a zombie-like existence,” said Kaveh Safavi, managing director for Accenture's global healthcare business. “Many digital start-ups that are dying or in danger of failure have developed solutions that can help traditional and non-traditional healthcare companies achieve their goals.”

As speculation swirls about Google's restructuring under its new Alphabet umbrella, one thing seems like a safe bet: The company may have made it more difficult to spread its wealth of data from entity to entity. Privacy watchers suggest that outcome may have been intended, particularly when involving health data.Google has kept well-known web services like Gmail, Google Search and YouTube in the reorganization, allowing data sharing among them to remain intact, but separated businesses such as X, which pursues futuristic innovations like driverless cars and Glass, into separate Google siblings within Alphabet. The connected home company, Nest, is another new division of Alphabet, broken out from Google.

Google Fit, a fitness app and data hub often considered to be Google’s answer to Apple HealthKit, has added a number of new fitness features in a new update. These features help make Google Fit itself competitive with other dedicated fitness tracking apps.

Specifically, the update adds the ability to track calories burned and distance travelled, provided the user enters their gender, height and weight in the app. Surprisingly, prior to this update, Google Fit only natively tracked steps and time spent walking, running or biking. It depended on third-party apps to track other metrics.

The new update also adds a historical view, which the app didn’t have before. Users can group past activities by days, weeks, or months. Finally, Google is also adding a Google Fit widget, which will allow users to see relevant workout stats on their smartphone homescreen without opening the app and an Android Wear watch face, which will allow them to see workout updates on the wrist (an update that should help Android Wear compete against the Apple Watch). The app will slowly be rolled out to Android users on various devices.

Digital technology is in the early stages when it comes to "safety net" deployments, but such tools pose tremendous promise and potential in engaging patients in healthcare management, according to new Commonwealth Fund research.

Key factors for strong adoption down the line include technical support for integration and device management, evidence-based models illustrating the potential of successful use in care delivery, and payment and reimbursement policies, the report says.

The report is based on data collected from an online survey of urban and rural community health centers and clinics, representing insight from 181 organizations.

Patient Survey Rates Coloplast Best In Corporate Reputation For The Fourth Straight Year Coloplast has been rated the best medical device company in a survey by the independent research organization PatientView. PR Newswire MI

Social media has done a lot of good for the world—it has become a platform to reconnect with friends and family, gives a voice to those who would otherwise not have one, and also helps people spread information to one another. One of the biggest flaws, however, is that social media can also be used to spread misinformation. Many posts often go viral without any background information, mostly in the form of memes and videos, and people are quick to jump on liking and sharing posts without having full knowledge or context of what they are sharing.

One of the biggest pieces of misinformation that has been spread is the link between autism and vaccines. While the link between vaccinating children and autism has been thoroughly debunked (one study had 95,000 participants), many still believe that there is a link. Celebrities such as actor Jim Carrey and model Jenny McCarthy are at the forefront of the anti-vaccination movement, and their influence allows misinformation regarding autism and vaccines to continue.

It has even gotten to the point where several children were infected with measles at Disneylandbecause of parents’ refusal to vaccinate their children. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that measles was eliminated from the United States in 2000, yet 644 people were infected in 2014, showing that misinformation on social media might play a part in parents refusing to vaccinate their kids.

Doctors have been split on whether or not to be active on social media—some say that it’s a waste of time, citing that there is no return on investment and significant burnout, while others believe social media can be the tool to help patients to become healthier and also stop misinformation from spreading online. “Studies suggest that patients forget more than 50 percent of what they are told in the doctor’s office. Add to that misremembering or misinterpretation, and the information holes grow even larger,” said Dr. Howard Luks, Chief of Sports Medicine and Arthroscopy at University Orthopedics, PC and Westchester Medical Center on KevinMD, a popular medical blog.

Dr. Kathryn A. Hughes, a Massachusetts-based surgeon, used to be skeptical of doctors being active on social media, citing privacy concerns and professionalism. “Be mindful of privacy and HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which governs patient privacy), and aware that content once posted can never really be deleted or retracted. Be careful that private and professional content do not mix, although the reality is that there really isn’t any such thing as truly private content,” she said.

Dr. Hughes also said that doctors being active on social media can also create a community of professionals where doctors can share information with one another and work together. “I also see social media as part of the solution to reestablish this sense of community and collegiality among doctors. Technology and the platforms being developed and tailored to physicians may re-create that space, where communication and collaboration can grow,” she added.

Lawmakers are also assisting doctors in their fight against medical misinformation. California’s SB 277, which effectively removes the parents’ ability to claim “personal belief” exemptions to vaccination requirements at schools, was passed as a reaction to the measles outbreak at Disneyland. While part of the measles outbreak could be blamed on misinformation being spread on social media, doctors could have taken charge and refuted anti-vaccination groups more actively online.

“Times are changing. Change happens all the time, all around, inside and out. It is random, with no direction, both good and bad, like genetic mutations. This is our opportunity to engage and participate, to direct the change, and to make it progress,” said Dr. Hughes.

A Mayo Clinic study finds that patients and physicians say the use of secure portals to discuss blood pressure management is helpful. However, the information shared via portal messages rarely is sufficient for a physician to write a prescription.

San Diego-based healthcare system Scripps Health has launched a new, eponymous app, for iOS and Android devices, that allows patients and visitors to find information about Scripps physicians, hospitals, and clinics.“So many people use smartphones, and rely on them to access the information they need whenever and wherever they need it,” Scripps CEO Chris Van Gorder said in a statement. “The new Scripps Health app puts the best features of our website a quick click away no matter where you might be.”

ProteusProteus Digital Health has received an update to its FDA 510(k) clearance for its digital medicine platform, adding a new indication to the clearance. The system is now, to the company’s knowledge, the first technology to have an indication in its FDA clearance for measuring medication adherence.“We are delighted that our collaborative work with the FDA continues to enable positive progress,” Proteus cofounder and Chief Medical Officer Dr. George Savage said in a statement. “We believe that ingestible devices have the potential to speed clinical trials and improve the real-world effectiveness of medicines in community settings.”
Via Alex Butler

In 1937, Sylvan Goldman, the owner of the Humpty-Dumpty grocery store chain, invented the shopping cart. Determined to reduce the cost of having to staff his stores with enough clerks to personally help each customer with over-the-counter purchases, he changed the paradigm. He created displays and shelves where people could help themselves, and, to prevent any inconvenience, he invented the shopping cart so they didn’t have to struggle with armfuls of goods. For all intent and purpose, the creation of the shopping cart was the byproduct of a much larger cost-saving initiative.

In many ways, healthcare is undergoing a similar change. Faced with high and unsustainable costs, the industry needs to change and eventually to move toward a self-service model where patients are more actively involved in their own care. We have already begun to see this in the rise of urgent care facilities, which are reducing the volume of more costly Emergency Room visits; and this movement will continue as patients only see their physician when they are very ill or if they require specialized care. While this will decrease volumes and help reduce overall healthcare costs, to maintain a healthy population people need to be able to accurately monitor their health in between visits with sufficient insight to know they are well. Wearables are that first step of this evolution in healthcare.

The top five markets for mobile health app companies in Europe include Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom, according to a survey of 5,000 app developers, healthcare professionals, and digital health practitioners. The survey, which was conducted by Research2Guidance in collaboration with HIMSS Europe, found that 55 percent of respondents ranked the UK as the top market.

Respondents were asked to rank the 28 countries in the European Union based on their experiences and explain why they ranked the countries in the order they chose. Other factors that contributed to the ranking include digital health adoption, level of digitalization, market size and health expenditure, ease of starting a business, and the digital health regulatory framework.

According to the survey, the reason the UK ranked above the other EU countries was that doctors in the UK have an open and positive attitude about using new technologies and integrating digital health offerings into patient treatments.

Patterns of fertility, mortality, and health - The UK has the highest ranking in health care with France and Germany as very high potentials. From this it can be concluded that these neighboring states are all developed, with great education that leads to great health care. Then, great health care normally means a higher life expectancy, with lower mortality rates. Also, because of higher education, the fertility rate will be lower and birth rate will be lower. These counties are great examples of countries moving to population stability, and with this data, these countries can help other lesser developed countries to increase equal patterns in fertility, mortality, and health.

Health insurance provider Cigna is debuting its newest version of Coach by Cigna 2.0, a free mHealth app tapping the psychology of assessment to provide users specific programs for managing health and lifestyle decisions.

The second generation Coach asks users 20 questions to understand diet, exercise and sleep habits so it can provide custom insight, via videos and health coach support, to help patients lead healthier lives. The answers determine if a user is either a "planner," "explorer," or "day dreamer," and lets users pick a program to track daily progress in meeting health goals.

Sharing your scoops to your social media accounts is a must to distribute your curated content. Not only will it drive traffic and leads through your content, but it will help show your expertise with your followers.

Integrating your curated content to your website or blog will allow you to increase your website visitors’ engagement, boost SEO and acquire new visitors. By redirecting your social media traffic to your website, Scoop.it will also help you generate more qualified traffic and leads from your curation work.

Distributing your curated content through a newsletter is a great way to nurture and engage your email subscribers will developing your traffic and visibility.
Creating engaging newsletters with your curated content is really easy.